Gas, power, nuclear, biofuels, upstream and downstream…

Ode to the immigrant

I’ve traveled for such a long time that sojourning feels tireless. So much wandering for so many generations… The former lands of my late relatives appear from afar like strange custom.

It’s all time’s fault. It always is because it encourages us to move on and there’s no turning back when you do. Even if I wanted, I cannot get the answer from the frozen black-and-white images in pictures taken over a century ago. What did they search so hard for in foreign lands?

I’m nobody but a process, a link on an endless human chain, they may respond to my question and return to their near-interminable silence.

But thanks for allowing me to share my thoughts and tell you that what lies over yonder, over that hill where it’s supposedly greener, only lives hope.

If I’d have to describe hope, it’s nothing more than a transit lounge of humanity where paths of life extend in every direction. Such trails are decorated on both sides by Earth’s bountiful and sometimes breathtaking landscapes.

” People will tell you where thet’ve gone, they’ll will tell you where to go, but until you get there yourself you’ll never really know. Where some have found their paradise othere just come to harm…. It was just a fals alarm. Maybe I’ve never really love I guess that is the truth I’ve spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitudes, and looking down on everything I crashed into )(a place and) her arms. It was just a false alarm.”
That’s just a song a poem buy a reality of some tangible glimpse into wonderlust; into what we are all searching for: a place where we can be a whole man or woman. Where we can fully exist, survive respect and be respected and loved for who we are and what we can contribute. We’re looking for community, and I hate to be the one to tell you this it can’t be found in Finland. They’ve lost it and are mesmerised by the material west. Most Finns will tell you they dislike American values, but if you look closely you will see that they have taken on the very same value as the way forward. Look at their business schools. You’ll fond a lot if not all business teachers are infact from the USA.
Y;-) Paddy

PS: Please spelling or type error whichever way you see it.
“That’s just a song a poem but a reality a some-what tangible glimpse……”
“You’ll find a lot, if not all business teachers are infact from the USA.
If you really believe the market is the way to go (before the benifit of people) because of the so called “trickle down effect” then ask why there are close to 50 million Americans living on the poverty line, and answer why after such a long innings at their prophetic market policies there is so much inequality, and so much war to maintain their position at the coast of mostly recruits from the poor (mostly black communities).
Paddy

Hi Paddy, those are wise words. In our fight to survive in Finland and run after material things, the sense of community has been undermined. I wrote in a a recent column: Like Sub-Arctic biodiversity, Finnish culture is in some respects vulnerable as well. For hundreds of years we’ve had a system that assured our survival in these inhospitable landscapes, but globalizaion and our greed for more material wealth is today undermining such values. How do we gain it back? Do we have to move away like immigrants to a new land where that community feeling is stronger?

Indeed your very words were those given to me by quite a few Finns who had gont to live in Dublin and other parts of Ireland: “they came to find and found a community spitit there which seem to give them reason enough to stay and bring up their families.
I was younger then and didn’t grasp really what they tried to convey, but now I certainly…indeed I do. Not that Ireland is or has not entered into the material zone as we know it is one of the richest countries in the EU and an actual model held high for the promotion of it, but ther is something we could learn from Ireland and that’s not just a Paddy talking for it is a well known fact: the Irish are one of the most hospitable people in the world and I miss it greatly living here in Finland. With respect.
Y;-) Paddy

I’ve been to Ireland and have met a fair share of Irish throughout the world. They are very nice people and I’ve always got along grandly with them. But it’s a bit dangerous to generalize because in each culture there are all types. But yes, the sense of community everywhere is being hit by our avarice. Just take a look around Mikkeli and see how much clearcutting is going on. The forest, which is like a church for some Finns, appears today more like a place with a pricetag.